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August 30, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Jul 22, 2007

Video crime peril vs. virtual pedophilia

By Peter Singer

PRINCETON, New Jersey — In a popular Internet role-playing game called Second Life, people can create a virtual identity for themselves, choosing such things as their age, sex and appearance. These virtual characters then do things that people in the real world do, such as having sex.

EDITORIALS

Jul 22, 2007

Passing of the JCP architect

Mr. Kenji Miyamoto, who died Wednesday at the age of 98, embodied the history of the Japanese Communist Party both before and after World War II. The charismatic leader put the party on a realistic policy path, helping the party gain some influence in Japan's politics.

EDITORIALS

Jul 22, 2007

Progress toward denuclearization

The latest round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs failed to set a deadline for the North's completion of next-phase commitments in its denuclearization process, specified in a Feb. 13 deal. Although the parties confirmed that they will indeed proceed from the initial to the...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jul 22, 2007

Outsiders, or not; that is the question

By Roger Pulvers

I wish I had a yen or two for every time I've been told: "You will never be accepted in Japan."

EDITORIALS

Jul 21, 2007

New warning on oil

Brace for another energy crisis. A new authoritative assessment forecasts sharply higher demand that will raise prices and increase reliance on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and unstable regions for oil supplies. While some experts dismiss the analysis as alarmist, we need...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 20, 2007

Confused by a Turkish veil

By Elif Shafak

ISTANBUL — On Monday millions of Turks will wake up to a new, post-elections Turkey. What will happen is hard to foresee. Turkish politics is full of surprises that only foreigners find surprising.

EDITORIALS

Jul 20, 2007

Mr. Bush's next Mideast gamble

The United States is gambling that the time is right for a new peace initiative between Israel and Palestinians and that a two-state solution to the seemingly intractable conflict can finally be realized. Earlier this week, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a Middle East peace conference of nations...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 20, 2007

That hazy, crazy bubbly feel of liquidity

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — We increasingly hear that "the world is awash with liquidity," and that this justifies expecting asset prices to continue rising. But what does such liquidity mean, and is there really reason to expect that it will sustain further increases in stock and real estate prices?...

EDITORIALS

Jul 19, 2007

A dash of insecurity from Moscow

Russia continues to up the ante in its relations with the West. Last week, Moscow announced that it will suspend its obligations under a key arms control treaty in Europe. The move underscores rising tensions with the United States and is another attempt to drive a wedge into the Atlantic Alliance. ...

COMMENTARY

Jul 19, 2007

'Quad Initiative': an inharmonious concert of democracies

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI — The newly launched Australia-India-Japan-U.S. "Quadrilateral Initiative" has raised China's hackles, but its direction is still undecided owing to differing perceptions within the group over what its aims and objectives ought to be.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 19, 2007

Palestinians still paying for past failures

By Shlomo Avineri

PRAGUE — Every week, it seems, brings another backward step for Palestine. President Mahmoud Abbas' failure to convene the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, due to a Hamas boycott, may lead inexorably to the final breakdown of the political structures created under the Oslo Accords.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 19, 2007

Is Frank Hsieh a moderate?

By David G. Brown

WASHINGTON — Frank Hsieh Chang-ting has been nominated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as their presidential candidate. Many in Taipei now believe he has a good chance of winning the election, assuming he does not withdraw as he has said he would if indicted on the corruption allegations...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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